This invention relates generally to airborne antenna apparatus and particularly to a gyro stabilized radome which is pivoted for roll and pitch from a pylon rigidly attached to an aircraft and which encloses an antenna which is independently driven for tilt and sweep motion.
In operating an airborne radar, it is desirable that the antenna being utilized remain horizontal with reference to the ground regardless of the flight attitude of the aircraft. It is equally desirable that the aircraft radome which encloses the antenna be aerodynamically stabilized and present as small a frontal area and correspondingly low drag coefficient when the aircraft is in flight. One type of antenna stabilizing apparatus utilizes a radome which is rigidly mounted to the aircraft structure and which provides all necessary degrees of freedom to the enclosed antenna by a complex gimbal mechanism. Another type of antenna apparatus is a rotatable radome enclosing an antenna with the radome being rotatably mounted to one end of a pylon which is attached at its other end to the aircraft fuselage. The enclosed antenna is rigidly fixed within the radome and both radome and the antenna move in unison. The foregoing examples of antenna stabilizing apparatus generally utilize a large radome assembly which presents a relatively large frontal area during aircraft flight and which also requires complex gimbal stabilizing systems.